KOLKATA: Tel Aviv National Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said the party would lodge a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) if Prime Minister Modi’s meditation is aired on television.
Banerjee alleged that if PM Modi’s meditation is broadcast on television it will be a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
After the election campaign ends, PM Modi will meditate in Kanyakumari for two days from May 30 to June 1.
Sources said the Prime Minister will visit the rock monument at Kanyakumari from the evening of May 30 to the evening of June 1 and meditate at the Dhyana Mandapam, located at the same place where Swami Vivekananda meditated.
PM Modi had undertaken a similar meditation in the Kedarnath caves after the 2019 election campaign was over.
Terming the move as “ostentation”, Banerjee said at an election rally in Baruipur, “Television cameras follow him while he sits in meditation. When people worship, will they do it in front of cameras? He (Modi) will campaign while enjoying the sea breeze. No one can campaign in this manner after the election campaign is over. He can sit in meditation but the media cannot report it. It is an MCC violation. We will file a complaint with the ECI.”
Banerjee further attacked Modi, saying, “Around 48 hours before the final elections, he tends to do such things to show people that he is absorbed in meditation. It is a beautiful seaside spot. People like to go there. Swamiji used to love that place. He (Modi) will go to the place and meditate. He is like a great God, so why meditate? People will meditate on him (Modi).”
“If the Prime Minister says he has no biological parents, then he is sent by God. He is like a messenger of God,” Ms. Banerjee slammed the Prime Minister. Incidentally, in an interview, PM Modi had said he was sent by God to carry out a special responsibility. He came to believe that he was not born biologically.
Banerjee also accused the ruling party at the Centre of selling shares in state-owned enterprises. “If they (BJP) return to power this time, there will be no political parties, no elections, no independence, no religion, no humanity and no culture,” she said.
The Trinamool Congress leader sought to deny PM Modi’s statement that the BJP would perform best in the upcoming elections in Bengal, saying “this means they have lost and there will be a rosogolla (zero) in Bengal.” She said the TMC would “support” the opposition Indian Alliance to form the government in Delhi and urged people not to vote for the CPI(M) or the Indian National Congress in Bengal.
“If I had not left the Nationalist Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress, I would not have been able to defeat the CPI(M) in Bengal even today,” she said.
Noting that she had fought against the CPI(M) for 34 years, she said, “If we have achieved that, we can also defeat the BJP and we intend to do so.”
Addressing a Baruipur rally in Jadavpur Assembly constituency in support of party candidate Saayoni Ghosh, Banerjee claimed to have credible information about a secret pact between the BJP and the CPI(M) for the Dum Dum Assembly seat.
According to her, the BJP will shift its votes to CPI(M) candidate Sujan Chakraborty from Dum Dum, while the Left parties are understood to be reciprocating by shifting their votes to saffron candidates in the seven Assembly constituencies under Dum Dum in the 2026 state assembly elections.
Later the same day, Banerjee addressed another election rally in Metiabruz in support of her party’s candidate from Diamond Harbour constituency, Abhishek Banerjee, and demanded the BJP to arrest her and herself. “They (BJP) are saying they will arrest Abhishek and me. So do it. Arrest us no matter how many jails there are,” Banerjee said.
She also said that TMC is the only party that is taking on the BJP like the Royal Bengal Tigers. Praising Abhishek, Banerjee said, “There is no one who can perform better and look after the constituency like Abhishek.”
